Massachusetts

colony-place

PLYMOUTH, MASS. — Newmark Knight Frank (NKF) has brokered the sale of two retail spaces totaling 418,970-square-feet within the Colony Place mixed-use development in Plymouth, located approximately 40 miles southeast of Boston. Texas-based investor The Rainier Cos. acquired the assets which include two spaces within the 1 million-square-foot Colony Place development: The Plaza, which comprises 230,497 square feet; and The Village, which comprises 188,473 square feet. The seller, Saxon Partners, will continue its role of master developer of Colony Place and will move forward with additions including a 320-unit apartment complex and a hotel. Robert Griffin, Geoffrey Millerd, Justin Smith and Paul Penman of NKF represented Saxon Partners in the transaction. The team also procured The Rainier Cos. as the buyer.  

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
Boston Multifamily Rent and Occupancy Forecast 2020

The country’s largest commercial real estate services firm recently selected Boston as its choice for strongest U.S. gateway multifamily market performer for 2020, and with good reason. The Eastern Massachusetts economy gained momentum in 2019, propelled by its world class “Eds and Meds” cluster and resurgent high tech, R&D and financial management communities. Income growth and job creation ran ahead of national averages and apartment markets remained tight and rent growth robust regardless of elevated supply. Investor demand for metro apartment properties surged, especially after mid-year, while cap rates remained accessible by primary market standards, especially in the suburban Class B segment. Metro job creation trends fell into a bit of a funk in the fall and winter of 2018-2019 but rebounded vigorously in the second half. Payrolls increased at a brisk 31,200-job, 1.7 percent year-on-year pace after mid-year, representing the fastest growth recorded in three years. Sector leadership was provided by Boston’s top knowledge industry sectors, headed by higher education (8.5 percent), research and development (9.8 percent), software and computer network design (4.9 percent) and financial management (2.6 percent). Only softness in the consumer-driven side of the labor market – construction, retail trade, personal services and government – held …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
the-rand

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. — Montessori-inspired school Rock and Roll Daycare has signed a 3,500-square-foot retail lease in Cambridge. The school will be located in the retail space at The Rand, a 19-unit condominium adjacent to the Porter Square MBTA Red Line station at 1975 Massachusetts Ave. The school will provide high-end childcare to infant, toddler and preschool-aged children with a music-focused curriculum. Urban Spaces LLC completed The Rand using modular construction in 2017 and Prellwitz Chilinski Associates served as the architect of the project. A partnership of Urban Spaces LLC and StoneRiver Properties is the landlord of The Rand.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
cambridge-crossing

At this point, it sounds like the movie “Groundhog Day,” but 2019 was another impressive year of growth and success for the greater Boston life sciences real estate market — and that growth shows no signs of subsiding any time soon. Duncan Gratton, Cushman & Wakefield Strong levels of venture capital investment, big pharmaceutical partnerships and merger and acquisition activity continued to fuel unprecedented demand for life sciences space, not only in and around Cambridge but also in submarkets like the Seaport, Watertown and certain Route 128 corridors. Venture capital (VC) funding for life sciences, while not quite at 2018 levels, remained robust with nearly $6 billion invested through the end of November. Major funding deals that closed in 2019 include Ginkgo Bioworks ($290 million), ElevateBio ($150 million) and Beam Therapeutics Inc. ($135 million), which all committed to leasing lab space in existing buildings and new developments throughout the area. Supply-Demand Balance The urban Massachusetts life sciences market, which includes Boston, Cambridge, and the inner suburbs of Watertown, Lexington, Medford and Waltham, now enjoys an inventory of about 20 million square feet and ended 2019 with a vacancy rate of just over 4 percent. Successful speculative developments at Arsenal Yards …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

BOSTON — Noodle concept TuruTonTan has opened a 5,000-square-foot restaurant in the Kenmore Square neighborhood of Boston. The two-story restaurant can accommodate 168 guests in the main dining room and also features patio seating for additional guests. Dining Innovation is TsuruTonTan’s parent company. Blank Design and American Construction Corp. designed and built out the space. Local investment firm Urban Meritage owns the building.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
SpringHill-Suites-Marriott-Boston-Peabody

PEABODY, MASS. — MCR Development LLC, a hotel owner and manager headquartered in New York City and Dallas, has acquired the SpringHill Suites by Marriott Boston Peabody, a 164-room hotel located approximately 30 miles north of Boston. The sales price was $16.2 million. Situated at 43 Newbury St., the hotel offers convenient access to State Route 1 and Interstate 95. Amenities include a fitness center and saltwater pool. The property is MCR’s first in Massachusetts. New York City-based investor Lightstone Group was the seller.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail

BOSTON — IQHQ Inc. has acquired 109 Brookline Avenue, a 285,000-square-foot office and lab building in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood. Equity Commonwealth sold the asset for $270 million. IQHQ, formerly Creative Sciences Properties, used funds from a $770 million capital raise to make the acquisition. The company, which specializes in life sciences real estate development, will use the rest of the funds to invest in life sciences projects in its core markets of Boston, San Francisco and San Diego in the United States, as well as the Golden Triangle in the United Kingdom (Cambridge, London and Oxford). “Boston’s amazing life sciences cluster keeps fueling demand for high-quality space,” says John Bonanno, chief investment officer of IQHQ. “109 Brookline checks a lot of boxes for us — it’s adjacent to Fenway Center, easily accessible by public transportation and in a neighborhood with a history of full occupancy and a bright future.” According to LoopNet Inc., the three-story building was originally developed in 1915 and renovated in 2000. The property is located along the corridor between Kenmore Square and the Longwood Medical Area, which is home to some of the country’s leading medical and research institutions. The property is situated two blocks from …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
Mike Coyne Walker & Dunlop

Think Boston multifamily is overbuilt or overheated? Think again. Due to superb fundamentals and a slowing development pipeline, Boston is now regarded as the number one metro area for multifamily investment. From 2019–2030, Boston will need to add 51,007 units to accommodate population growth, an average of 4,637 units per year. Recent development (2014­­­–2017) averaged 3,334 units per year. Population and job growth are expected to remain strong, fueling continued demand for multifamily housing and countering arguments that the Boston market is overbuilt. Many developers nationally are interested in the market. The construction pipeline for multifamily properties features organizations with headquarters as far away as Portland, Phoenix, and Dallas. The Houston-based Hanover Company, for example, has four properties totaling over a thousand units in the Boston development pipeline. Boston is a seller’s market as well, with deals typically attracting multiple bids, and it is easy to see why. For investors, Boston is a market with an average cap rate of roughly 4.5 percent. This is the same cap rate as Raleigh or Central Florida — two markets generally considered to be more volatile than Boston in the case of a recession. A Reliable Hub Becomes a Vibrant City “Historically, people …

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
161-mass

FRAMINGHAM, MASS. — JLL has secured a $43.1 million acquisition loan for a two-property office portfolio totaling 292,014 square feet in Framingham, a western suburb of Boston. The properties, a 166,101-square-foot building situated at 492 Old Connecticut Path and a 125,913-square-foot building situated 161 Worcester Road, were 90 percent leased to 32 tenants at the time of the loan closing. Cambridge Savings Bank provided the fixed rate, nonrecourse loan to the borrower, a partnership between Campanelli and TriGate Capital. The borrower plans to invest $2.4 million into capital improvements to the portfolio. Greg LaBine and Martha Nay of JLL arranged the loan.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail
54-baker-concord

CONCORD, MASS. — A joint venture of Celera Properties and AEW Capital Management has acquired Emerson Hospital Center for Specialty Care, a 46,350-square-foot medical office property in Concord, a northwestern suburb of Boston. Located at 54 Baker Ave. Extension, the building serves as a specialized outpatient facility for Emerson Hospital. Coleman Benedict, Ben Sayles and Mike Restivo led a JLL team that represented the seller, Concord Property Management, in the transaction. The team also procured the joint venture as the buyer.

FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmail